Anime Vice News

SAILOR MOON & The Art of the Anime Remake - - OTAKU COMING HOME

What to expect when you’re expecting. In Part 3 of "Everything Old Is New Again," Nick examines why we seem to be surrounded by remakes. Do they reaffirm the quality of our favorite stories or do they signal the end of creativity? SOMEBODY TELL ME HOW TO FEEL!

I don’t like
standing in line or shelling out money for something I think I’ve already seen (Hollywood has trained me to gag at the prospect, actually). Even so, more and
more anime remakes are clogging up my instant queues, streaming content and
Amazon wishlist lately. They’re everywhere, climbing over the fences, banging
on your door and clamoring for your attention.

To try and sort
through the lot of ‘em, and to understand why some work while others (though a seemingly rare occurrence in anime)
fail, over the past few weeks we’ve categorized the unruly beasts as follows:

Our
not-so-impartial study - - also known as one dude’s opinion - - has found that “Reimagined Remakes” are probably the most
creatively successful (and my favorite)
while “Manga Remakes” might be hit or miss depending
on the approach (even if they’re the ones most likely to make fans blindly
happy).

But how do we
reconcile our last category, the “We Don’t Know Yet” Remake? These are shows
that have been animated in some capacity at least once before, and have remakes currently in the works. Thing
is, we don’t really know a whole lot about them... Yet.

Do we blindly
cheer on our favorites, anxiously awaiting every crumb of news? Roll our eyes
at yet another remake whilst shaking our fists at the networks/studios for
greenlighting something we’ve seen before rather than supporting creativity
with a new/exciting show? Should a remake be automatically written off, even if
you haven’t seen the original?

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL?

To figure it out,
let’s look at two remakes due to hit in the coming months, each from an end of
the spectrum. One's a favorite series of mine being remade, and the other I’ve never
experienced.

Nick’s Franchise Experience Level: In the name of the moon, I will
school you.

Should We Be Excited? Yes.

I’m not gonna
bore you guys with my love of SAILOR MOON. I’ve already done that at length.
The short version is that SAILOR MOON is secretly an awesome show for
everybody, not just girls. It mixes shonen and shojo tropes effortlessly and
mainstreamed a new genre. It’s awesome.

So what makes
this particular remake one worth cheering for? We only know a handful of
details so far, but what’s been revealed is enough to get my attention:

Toei is behind the new show and, for
the most part, they did a superb job with the original

It’s due out starting next summer

Regardless of
whether it’s a “Manga Remake” or a “Reimagined Remake,” this new iteration of
SAILOR MOON promises to, at least, provide fans with something special in the
new animation. It also has designs on being a lengthy series, which means
there’s more to invest yourself in than a movie or OVA would offer.

"Just an OVA?" Pfft... what kind of pansies do you take us for?"

More valuable than
what it can do for existing fans, however, is what it can do for those who’ve
never experienced the original. Where DRAGON BALL Z has never really left the
collective unconscious thanks to video games and constant DVD re-releases, and
EVANGELION is always being talked about, SAILOR MOON is more like RUROUNI
KENSHIN and other mid-90’s favorites: fondly remembered but rarely seen since
its conclusion. Their remakes, however, couldn’t be more different.

Where the RUROUNI
KENSHIN: NEW KYOTO ARC OVA's seek to highlight a fan-favorite storyline in
celebration of the show's anniversary, the new SAILOR MOON opts to invite
newcomers and initiates alike into the fold. The KENSHIN approach is a great
one and certainly isn’t a members-only affair, but we old timers have the most to
gain from the material.

And, just to butter you up, Kodansha's been releasing a faithful translation of the manga. Come next summer, you'll be BEGGING for the new anime.

The new SAILOR
MOON, however, is kicking the doors open wide. With the manga finally getting a
faithful translation/release in the U.S., one that’s topping the graphic novel
sales charts month after month, it seems like the story still has legs 20 years
later. It’s catching the attention of both a new generation of fans and those
who grew up with the show. There’s a timeless quality to the story, one that
makes it as accessible to folks today as it was to me when I was growing up.

And that leads me
directly into our next example:

Coming all the way from 1963 to a theater near... well, not you, but near some Japanese folks.

Beautiful
animation? Check. Cool-looking action? Uh-huh. Awesome character design? Oh
yeah. An intriguing story? Yup (admittedly
I had to dig into the internet to learn more, as the trailer was mainly eye
candy).

What really got
my attention though was the history of the franchise. Its basic themes - - Cold
War fears coupled with a loss of freedom/control -- are just as timeless as the
fairytale-esque SAILOR MOON. Though I’d never really heard of it, a 50-year-old
series with multiple adaptations under its belt finally caught my attention
thanks to a new remake.

Ha! Got him! Fifth time's the charm.

When I set out to
write this article, I planned on emailing your pal and mine, Sam Weller, to
chat about CYBORG 009 since I’ve heard he’s quite a fan. I wanted to get some
context for the title’s history, hear someone talk about how much they’ve loved
it, all that stuff. But then it occurred to me that my not knowing about it was actually more important. My lack of
knowledge, but being no less excited about the release, has given us the final
piece of our “Remake” study. It’s the last bit of context we needed to
understand not only where anime remakes succeed and fail but, more importantly,
how we should regard them as fans.

Let’s put all of
our conclusions from the past few weeks together then, shall we?

The successful anime remake takes a series or film, with
timeless themes that transcend format, and reinterprets it for fans both new
and old, showing respect for the source without falling prey to reverence.

So are anime
remakes the death of creativity? Nah. In fact, Hollywood and its endless stream
of vapid remakes could learn a thing or two from Japan. Though when done wrong
they cause us intestinal discomfort, anime remakes done right are really
something special: a celebration of the shows we love, inviting a new generation
to check out the stories we count among our favorites, and worthy of our praise
and excitement.

I’ll line up for
that, cash in hand, even if I do think I’ve already seen it. Odds are there’s
enough new in there to surprise me, and enough old to make me smile.

Was that the 2001 series? There's been a couple! In the case of CYBORG 009 I'd be really curious to work my way backwards in the adaptations to see what's evolved, what's been added back in from the source, etc.

@NickTapalansky: Giant Robo is a curious case of a studio having the titular robot rights, but not the rights to the pilot and other characters, so the director decided to use characters from other mangas from the same author of Giant Robo and give it an awesome retro animation and the best music in the story of anime (not joking here, the OST CD are seven one for each OVA and heavily inspired by Wagner)

Shin Mazinger was a little bit different, it was the classical cast fused with characters of other Go-Nagai works. Pretty damn awesome openings as well, like Kanjite Knight and The Gardian

I wonder what a Ranma 1/2 remake would be like. they might go for the manga approach and add in the missing arcs. I personally would like to see something a lot different. My idea for a remake would involve (controversially) removing the genderbending and make female Ranma her own distinct character, and have the martial arts and romance more fleshed out to make the characters more entertaining. also having girl-Ranma as her own character would mean completely different interactions for the two Ranmas, and make things a lot more interesting.

Cyborg 009 was great to watch as a kid, so I'll be interested in seeing what the remake offers. I also want to to see the Sailor Moon Remake, but first, I gotta watch the original. (sorry, I still haven't gotten to it yet!)